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Exploring Research

ISBN: 9780131937833 | 0131937839
Edition: 7th
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Prentice Hall
Pub. Date: 1/1/2009

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SummaryTable of Contents
The 6th edition of "Exploring Research" provides an introduction to research methods in a friendly, approachable writing style. It explores the use of electronic sources (the Internet) as a means to enhance research skills; it includes discussions about scientific methods; and it incorporates the most common types of research models in the social and behavioral sciences, including qualitative methods. It provides coverage of the research process, problem selection, sampling and generalizability; a discussion of the measurement process provides ... MORE
... MORE
Prefacexix
What's New in This Edition?xix
How This Book Is Organizedxx
What's Special About This Book?xxi
How to Use This Bookxxi
A Big Thanksxxii
The Role and Importance of Research
1(18)
Say Hello to Research!
1(1)
What Research Is and What It Isn't
2(2)
A Model of Scientific Inquiry
4(5)
Asking the Question
6(1)
Identifying the Important Factors
6(1)
Formulating a Hypothesis
7(1)
Collecting Relevant Information
7(1)
Testing the Hypothesis
8(1)
Working with the Hypothesis
8(1)
Reconsidering the Theory
8(1)
Asking New Questions
9(1)
Different Types of Research
9(3)
Nonexperimental Research
9(3)
Experimental Research
12(2)
True Experimental Research
13(1)
Quasi-Experimental Research
13(1)
What Scientific Method to Use When?
14(1)
Basic Research Versus Applied Research
15(1)
Summary
15(1)
Exercises
15(1)
Want to Know More?
16(3)
Further Readings
16(1)
Readings of Other Interest
17(1)
And on the Internet ...
18(1)
The Research Process: Coming to Terms
19(18)
From Problem to Solution
19(2)
The Language of Research
21(1)
All About Variables
21(3)
Dependent Variables
22(1)
Independent Variables
22(2)
The Relationship Between Independent and Dependent Variables
24(1)
Other Important Types of Variables
24(1)
Hypotheses
25(5)
The Null Hypothesis
25(2)
The Research Hypothesis
27(1)
Differences Between the Null Hypothesis and the Research Hypothesis
28(1)
What Makes a ``Good'' Hypothesis?
29(1)
Samples and Populations
30(1)
The Concept of Significance
31(1)
Summary
32(1)
Exercises
32(1)
Want to Know More?
33(4)
Further Readings
33(1)
Readings of Other Interest
34(1)
And on the Internet ...
35(2)
Selecting a Problem and Reviewing the Research
37(48)
Selecting a Problem
38(2)
Defining Your Interests
40(1)
Ideas, Ideas, Ideas (and What to Do With Them)
41(1)
From Idea to Research Question to Hypothesis
42(1)
Reviewing the Literature
42(13)
Using General Sources
45(2)
Using Secondary Sources
47(1)
Using Primary Sources
48(7)
Reading and Evaluating Research
55(3)
What Does a Research Article Look Like?
56(1)
Criteria for Judging a Research Study
56(2)
Basic Principles of Ethical Research
58(4)
Protection From Harm
58(1)
Maintenance of Privacy
58(1)
Coercion
58(1)
Informed Consent
59(2)
Confidentiality
61(1)
Debriefing
61(1)
Sharing Benefits
61(1)
Ensuring High Ethical Standards
62(3)
The Role of Professional Organizations
62(1)
A Summary of Ethical Guidelines
63(1)
Ethics and Children
64(1)
Ethics Regarding On-line Research
64(1)
Using Electronic Tools in Your Research Activities
65(6)
Searching On-line
65(1)
Searching the Web: Great Search Engines
66(1)
More About Google
67(4)
Using Bibliographic Database Programs
71(1)
An Introduction to the Internet and the World Wide Web
72(6)
Research Activities on the Net
73(1)
An Introduction to E-Mail
73(2)
An Introduction to News Groups
75(3)
Using Mailing Lists or ListServs
78(1)
Exploring the WWW
78(2)
A Bit About Home Pages
79(1)
Writing the Literature Review
80(1)
Summary
81(1)
Exercises
81(1)
Want to Know More?
82(3)
Further Readings
82(1)
Readings of Other Interest
83(1)
And on the Internet ...
83(2)
Sampling and Generalizability
85(14)
Populations and Samples
85(1)
Probability Sampling Strategies
86(6)
Simple Random Sampling
86(4)
Systematic Sampling
90(1)
Stratified Sampling
91(1)
Cluster Sampling
92(1)
Nonprobability Sampling Strategies
92(2)
Convenience Sampling
93(1)
Quota Sampling
94(1)
Samples, Sample Size, and Sampling Error
94(2)
How Big Is Big?
95(1)
Estimating Sample Size
95(1)
Summary
96(1)
Exercises
96(1)
Want to Know More?
97(2)
Further Readings
97(1)
Readings of Other Interest
98(1)
And on the Internet ...
98(1)
Measurement, Reliability, and Validity
99(24)
The Measurement Process
99(1)
Levels of Measurement
100(5)
Nominal
101(1)
Ordinal
102(1)
Interval
102(1)
Ratio
103(1)
Continuous Versus Discrete Variables
104(1)
What Is All the Fuss?
104(1)
Reliability and Validity: Why They Are Very, Very Important
105(8)
A Conceptual Definition of Reliability
106(1)
What Makes Up Error Scores?
107(1)
Increasing Reliability
108(1)
How Reliability Is Measured
109(1)
Types of Reliability
110(3)
Establishing Reliability: An Example
113(1)
Validity
113(5)
A Conceptual Definition of Validity
113(1)
Types of Validity
114(2)
Establishing Validity: An Example
116(2)
The Relationship Between Reliability and Validity
118(1)
A Closing (Very Important!) Thought
118(1)
Summary
119(1)
Exercises
119(1)
Want to Know More?
120(3)
Further Readings
120(1)
Readings of Other Interest
120(1)
And on the Internet ...
121(2)
Methods of Measuring Behavior
123(22)
Tests and Their Development
124(2)
Why Use Tests?
124(1)
What Tests Look Like
125(1)
Types of Tests
126(15)
Achievement Tests
126(2)
Multiple-Choice Achievement Items
128(4)
Attitude Tests
132(2)
Personality Tests
134(1)
Observational Techniques
135(3)
Questionnaires
138(3)
Summary
141(1)
Exercises
141(1)
Want to Know More?
142(3)
Further Readings
142(1)
Readings of Other Interest
143(1)
And on the Internet ...
143(2)
Data Collection and Descriptive Statistics
145(20)
Getting Ready for Data Collection
145(1)
The Data Collection Process
146(4)
Constructing Data Collection Forms
146(2)
Coding Data
148(1)
The Ten Commandments of Data Collection
149(1)
Getting Ready for Data Analysis
150(1)
Descriptive Statistics
151(4)
Distributions of Scores
151(1)
Comparing Distributions of Scores
152(1)
Measures of Central Tendency
152(3)
Measures of Variability
155(2)
The Range
155(1)
The Standard Deviation
155(2)
Understanding Distributions
157(5)
The Normal (Bell-Shaped) Curve
157(1)
The Mean and the Standard Deviation
158(2)
Standard Scores: Computing and Using z Scores
160(1)
What z Scores Really, Really Mean
161(1)
Summary
162(1)
Exercises
162(1)
Want to Know More?
163(2)
Further Readings
163(1)
Readings of Other Interest
164(1)
And on the Internet ...
164(1)
Introducing Inferential Statistics
165(20)
Say Hello to Inferential Statistics
165(4)
How Inference Works
165(1)
The Role of Chance
166(1)
The Central Limit Theorem
166(3)
The Idea of Statistical Significance
169(2)
Tests of Significance
171(8)
How a Test of Significance Works
171(1)
t-Test for Independent Means
172(2)
How to Select the Appropriate Test
174(1)
Some Other Tests of Significance
175(3)
Working With More Than One Dependent Variable
178(1)
Significance Versus Meaningfulness
179(1)
Meta-Analysis
180(2)
How Meta-Analyses Are Done
181(1)
Summary
182(1)
Exercises
182(1)
Want to Know More?
183(2)
Further Readings
183(1)
Readings of Other Interest
184(1)
And on the Internet ...
184(1)
Nonexperimental Research: Descriptive and Correlational Methods
185(16)
Descriptive Research
186(5)
Survey Research
186(5)
Correlational Research
191(7)
The Relationship Between Variables
192(1)
What Correlation Coefficients Look Like
193(2)
Computing the Pearson Correlation Coefficient
195(3)
Summary
198(1)
Exercises
198(1)
Want to Know More?
199(2)
Further Readings
199(1)
Readings of Other Interest
199(1)
And on the Internet ...
200(1)
Nonexperimental Research: Qualitative Methods
201(16)
Conducting Qualitative Research
201(1)
Research Sources
202(3)
Documentation
202(1)
Archival Records
202(1)
Physical Artifacts
203(1)
Direct Observation
203(1)
Participant Observation
203(1)
Focus Groups
203(2)
Case Studies
205(2)
Some Advantages of the Case Study Method
205(1)
Some Disadvantages of the Case Study Method
206(1)
Ethnographies
207(1)
Historical Research
207(6)
Conducting Historical Research
208(1)
The Steps in Historical Research
209(1)
Sources of Historical Data
210(1)
Primary or Secondary Sources: Which Are Best?
211(1)
Authenticity and Accuracy
212(1)
The Limitations of Historical Research
213(1)
Qualitative Research Tools
213(1)
Summary
214(1)
Exercises
214(1)
Want to Know More?
214(3)
Further Readings
214(1)
Readings of Other Interest
215(1)
And on the Internet ...
215(2)
Pre- and True Experimental Research Methods
217(16)
Experimental Designs
218(5)
Pre-Experimental Designs
219(1)
True Experimental Designs
220(3)
Internal and External Validity and Experimental Design
223(4)
Threats to Internal Validity
223(2)
Threats to External Validity
225(1)
Increasing Internal and External Validity
226(1)
Internal or External Validity: A Trade-Off?
227(1)
Controlling Extraneous Variables
227(2)
Matching
228(1)
Use of Homogeneous Groups
229(1)
Analysis of Covariance
229(1)
Summary
229(1)
Exercises
229(1)
Want to Know More?
230(1)
Further Readings
230(1)
Readings of Other Interest
231(1)
And on the Internet ...
231(2)
Quasi-Experimental Research: A Close Cousin to Experimental Research
233(14)
The Quasi-Experimental Method
233(2)
Quasi-Experimental Designs
235(8)
The Nonequivalent Control Group Design
235(1)
The Static Group Comparison
236(1)
Single-Subject Design
236(2)
Multiple Baseline Designs
238(1)
Evaluating Single-Subject Designs
239(1)
Developmental Research
240(1)
The Utility of Follow-up Studies
241(2)
The Role of Age in Studying Development
243(1)
Summary
243(1)
Exercises
244(1)
Want to Know More?
244(3)
Further Readings
244(1)
Readings of Other Interest
245(1)
And on the Internet
245(2)
Writing a Research Proposal
247(14)
The Format of a Research Proposal
247(2)
Appearance
248(1)
Evaluating the Studies You Read
249(2)
Criteria for Judging a Research Study
250(1)
Planning the Actual Research
251(3)
Selecting a Dependent Variable
253(1)
Reviewing a Test
254(1)
Basic Information
254(1)
General Test Information
254(1)
Design and Appearance
255(1)
Reliability
255(1)
Validity
255(1)
Norms
255(1)
Evaluation
255(1)
Selecting a Sample
255(3)
Data Collection and Analysis
257(1)
Selecting an Inferential Statistic
257(1)
Protecting Human Subjects
258(1)
Summary
258(1)
Exercises
258(1)
Want to Know More?
258(3)
Further Readings
258(1)
Readings of Other Interest
259(1)
And on the Internet ...
259(2)
Writing a Research Manuscript
261(22)
What a Manuscript Looks Like
261(4)
Title Page
262(1)
The Abstract
262(1)
Introduction
263(1)
Method
263(1)
Results
263(1)
Discussion
264(1)
References
264(1)
Appendices
264(1)
Author Notes
264(1)
Footnotes
264(1)
Table Captions
265(1)
Tables
265(1)
Figure Captions
265(1)
Figures
265(1)
Nuts and Bolts
265(1)
References
266(1)
Summary
266(17)
Appendix A: An Introduction to SPSS 13.x283(2)
Appendix B: Sample Data Set285(6)
Appendix C: Answers to Exercises291(10)
References301(4)
Glossary305(10)
Index315

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